Army will miss Coach B during NCAA baseball tourney

Monday

May 27, 2013 at 2:00 AMMay 27, 2013 at 6:34 PM

Mark McCants stepped into the batter's box prepared to send Army to another NCAA baseball tournament.

Kevin Gleason

Mark McCants stepped into the batter's box prepared to send Army to another NCAA baseball tournament. Harold Earls was on third base after dropping a bunt single and stealing second and third. In the dugout, Army coach Joe Sottolano considered the fortunes of maybe Army's best clutch hitter at bat with the game on the line.

Assistant coach Lt. Col. Dave Borowicz's world suddenly went dark. He was not in the dugout but in a tiny computer lab in Fort Benning, Ga., 1,000 miles from top-seeded Holy Cross' home at Fitton Field in Worcester, Mass.

It was 4-4, two outs, bottom of the ninth, Army having won the opener of the best-of-three series earlier that Sunday eight days ago. Army's volunteer assistant coach was borrowing an audio feed of the potential Patriot League tournament-clinching win.

Then the audio went dead.

Weird. As frustrated as he was at the timing of the glitch, Borowicz felt "an incredible sense of calm'' with McCants at bat. Army, which opened the season 0-7 overall and 3-5 in the league, had put together a brilliant late-season run heading into the tournament. Army, last of the three playoff seeds, swept Navy in the best-of-three semis and beat Holy Cross 9-4 in the title-series opener. Now the right guy was batting at the right time for the right team. More great timing.

Borowicz rattled off texts to his wife, Cindy, and Army sports information official Christian Anderson. McCants hit a screaming shot down the left-field line off Holy Cross' stud closer, John Colella. Earls trotted home and the Black Knights formed a wild celebratory pile near home plate.

Borowicz was at Fort Benning after being deployed two days before the series. When he got word of McCants' game-winner, Borowicz raised both arms inside the tiny room miles from home plate but breathlessly close to the pile of Army baseball humanity.

Army, a 5-4 winner, was going to the NCAA tournament for the second straight year.

Sottolano, Minisink Valley High Class of '86, insisted he did a less than sterling coaching job despite the title, despite returning just three non-pitching starters. He said he failed to communicate well with a team dominated by achieving underclassmen. Army's title-clinching lineup, after all, included two freshmen and four sophomores.

"He told us several times,'' Earls said, "that he felt like he wasn't able to get across to us. He was making us better. I just don't think he saw the results.''

"I am dead serious,'' Sottolano said. "For a month and a half, there was nothing I could say that registered. I couldn't get through to them.''

Ever the taskmasker, Sottolano was getting through to his team, but his messages often needed to be translated. Associate head coach Matt Reid, pitching coach Anthony DeCicco and Borowicz helped clear pathways from the head coach to players and players to the head coach.

"This year, Joe really had to make a concerted effort to slow down, go back to basics and do a lot more teaching,'' Borowicz said during his final days at Fort Benning last week. "Sometimes it's a battle of wills. He is not going to lose that battle. I think it took the kids a little while to get over their individual struggles, to play for something bigger than themselves. A lot of times, I think that all it takes is maybe a different voice at different times.''

Players related to Borowicz, 43, on several levels. He's a 1992 West Point graduate, a Rhodes Scholar candidate, a decorated soldier. Borowicz, in his third tour as an Army assistant, spent 15 months in Iraq as part of the U.S.-led invasion after being deployed for three years following the 2004 season. He earned his doctorate in 2010, and teaches engineering courses at the Academy. He was a standout three-year starting pitcher for the Black Knights, his final season corresponding with Sottolano's debut as an Army assistant in '92.

"You don't find people like him very often, even at a place like here,'' said Earls, a sophomore third baseman. "He's an incredible human being.''

"Coach B always, always, always seems to come up with a very smart response,'' sophomore shortstop Alex Jensen said. "It might be a tiny baserunning mistake that was overlooked by everyone. In 10 words or less, he can lead an entire group of people.''

Borowicz, the son of a no-nonsense old-school coach, is a savvy baseball man and dogged competitor. Sottolano described Borowicz's play on the basketball court as talking "more trash than an NBA player.

"There is a lot to coach,'' Sottolano said. "He's a man of few words, but when he does talk, you listen.''

Army players listened. Their bond with Borowicz only increased when they got word of his deployment. He would go from Fort Benning to Afghanistan to help build critical infrastructure for the Afghan people. Borowicz was heading to a land where many of his players will soon walk.

Sottolano and Borowicz were fishing together one Monday when Borowicz broke the news of his deployment. He would have to leave Cindy and their three children — Maggie, 18, Allison, 17, and Josh, 11. He would miss Allison's graduation from James I. O'Neill High and her trip off to college at Rhode Island this fall.

"Kind of short notice, huh?'' Sottolano said. Borowicz shrugged. This was his duty.

"I was the choice,'' he told Sottolano.

So when the victory pile finally unwrapped eight days ago after eight straight wins, 10 of 13 and 18 of 23 for the Black Knights (29-21), Jensen had his own message for Sottolano. "That one was for Coach B right there,'' Jensen said.

On Memorial Day, Borowicz will work the available technology to learn of Army's opponent after it gets word during the NCAA tournament selection show. This time, however, he will be helping lead the Black Knights from Afghanistan instead of a computer lab in Fort Benning.

"He really cares, and you can see that,'' Earls said. "All the guys love coach Borowicz.''